Doctor Who Review by John Keegan

Doctor Who 10.01: The Pilot

Written By:Steven Moffat

Directed By:Lawrence Gough

With the hiatus between Series 9 and 10 of the
modern Doctor Who, not to mention the
introduction of a new Companion, there is a bit of a feeling like this is
another mid-stream “pilot”. That’s
reflected in the title, but it also sets a few expectations. Thankfully this is a good (if abrupt) start,
as Bill Potts is neither someone with an immediately evident “mystery” to be
solved nor a likely semi-romantic addition to The Doctor’s travels.

It’s very interesting to see why The Doctor
finds Bill to be worth his effort, because it speaks to where The Doctor has
arrived in his own development. Bill is
someone with a level of perceptiveness that he can’t help but appreciate. And he’s been around that university for a
while, which suggests he was looking for a bright young mind with the right
kind of inquisitiveness. Is it that The
Doctor is searching for a purpose again, having lost River?

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t some
overbearing elements designed to sell the audience as fast as possible on the
new status quo. In some cases, the music
serves to push reactions and anticipations to the point where we really don’t
get to invest fully in Bill as the potential viewpoint character. Instead of discovering her emotions and
reactions through her eyes and experiences, everything is telegraphed with such
a “wink” to the audience that we see everything coming a mile away. By the end of the premiere, we’re left with a
lot of questions about Bill still unanswered.

As with most episodes that introduce a major
companion, the story is straightforward.
This is most apparent in the weakest link of the episode: Bill’s
relationship to Heather. There’s simply
not enough time to establish the kind of bond that the final act of the story
requires to achieve the intended impact.
This is especially true since the chase through space and time
inevitably brings The Doctor, Bill, and the possessed Heather to an encounter
with the Daleks. It feels forced, to say
the least, and ultimately robs the episode of time better spent giving Bill and
Heather more time to actually bond.

In terms of the strength of Bill as a
character, she will no doubt be the center of unnecessary controversy. She’s not the first Companion of color, but
she is the first prominently non-heterosexual Companion since Jack Harkness
roamed the space-time continuum. And
since Jack was omnisexual, it’s inevitable that some will balk at Bill simply
because she won’t have any reason to make eyes at The Doctor. I personally find that refreshing, if the writers
can do it justice. One of the strengths
of Torchwood, for example, was
breaking the conventional mold with its characters.

That said, since this is the last go-round for
Peter Capaldi as The Doctor, it will be hard not to want the focus to be on
him. One of the strengths of the ninth series
was how it remained focused on The Doctor and how Clara’s inevitable departure
affected him. It gave Capaldi some
strong material. Hopefully Bill’s story
will also be more complementary to The Doctor’s instead of overwhelming
it. It would also be nice to see Nardole
be more than background garnish, especially given his nuanced role in “The
Return of Doctor Mysterio”.

Our Grade:

B

The Good:

Bill is a very different Companion from the previous choices in the Moffat era, in some great ways

The Bad:

Everything about the episode pushes the audience response vs. allowing it to arrive organically

John Keegan aka "criticalmyth", is one of the hosts of the "Critical Myth" podcast heard here on VOG Network's radio feed Monday, Wednesday & Friday. You can follow him on twitter at @criticalmyth

Log in or Register!

Why Register? Because VOG isn't JUST a content media network - it's a game. You play the game by participating in all that VOG has to offer. Rise in the Monthly Leaderboard by participating in our live broadcasts and podcasts, contributing to the discussion in our articles, and engaging in our interactive content - finding Loot along the way!

You might even find some Loot in the first five minutes after registering...You won't know until you try, right?